$400 dollar gross polluter!!
 

I was pulled over a couple weeks ago for having no front license plate in Santa Cruz, CA.
Next thing you know,the cop asks me to pop my hood and found my uncatted headers and my intake. He writes me a citation for Modified Emissions, but instead of writing Scion/Toyota(i drive an frs) in the make, he writes Subaru(they are twins after all. He also failed to write down my license plate completely(missing 3 characters). If i fight him in court, what are the odds i will win? im not trying to pay for a 400 dollar ticket.

Tip: you don't have to pop your hood unless he has crazy probable cause because that's a search.

Him misidentifying your vehicle is unlikely to make the ticket invalid. Your best bet would be him not showing up to court - but the license plate failure (or anything else) really tends to irk some judges, who hate cop incompetence.

I'm definitely not your lawyer and this isn't legal advice. (Disclaimer)

In the future, politely decline to pop your hood. I have done so and I also have a law school license plate which usually either makes cops avoid pressing me or be extra obnoxious, but I've never had one force me.

If you want to bet the ticket, I hope you still have your stock parts. Just slap them on then slap them off after they inspect it.

If you try fight eh... All depends if he shows up or not. I seen a few cops correct their mistakes on plates they get wrong in font of the judge. "Oh I missed the last two letters?" He just writes the last two figures on the ticket. And your still screwed.

Next time, when you get pulled over turn off your car. Keep your front plate in your car along with zip ties.
If your car sounds like a fart can then... Yeah you kind of brought it on your self.

Changing parts for the inspection is not going to beat the ticket. That allows you to pay the fee, which you can't without correcting the defect. (EDIT: This does not appear to always be true, I see sometimes you can just pay an inspection fee for minor stuff like plates. Don't know if headers and intake will be the same. )

If he wants to go to court with evidence that he NEVER HAD THE PARTS, that's a whole different story. Judges aren't going to go "wow well there's no turbo/illegally loud muffler/header/underbody neon on the car now?? Well it must've been your imagination officer, case dismissed"

Not really sure what your suggestion is haha, but I really don't advise someone to commit felony perjury to get out of a $400 ticket lol

Also OP just run a front tow hook mount man it looks fine

yeah they put me through a state ref smog check, i had to pass or risk getting my registration revoked. I did swap out the parts and passed.

i think it was pretty unlucky considering i was not even bringing attention to myself. the cop actually followed me for a block before pulling one car ahead of me, (he was definitely eyeing my car, especially because he saw my radar as he passed my open window) but i guess thats when he saw i had no front plate, which gave him reason to stop me :/

You live in California and you mod your car. That's an expensive game to play. One reason I got the hell out of there.

California and NY are really the worst places to live as a car enthusiast (from a bureaucratic perspective). If you have mods that are illegal (just being frank) you really shouldn't be drawing attention to yourself or having your vehicle externally configured in a manner that provides them an opportunity to pull you over (like no front plate).

The front plate on the twins is an easy fix - a bunch of companies make side plate mounts that go in the tow hook hole. They're a lot less "ugly" than drilling the bumper.

From my multi ticket experiences the courts in CA are slammed and they'll dismiss anything they can. Go to court inform the judge you've reverted your car back to stock and have a inspection ticket signed off by a officer. hope and pray he drops the ticket with a small court fine. If he doesn't you're sol pay the fee you got to pay to play.

Good luck!


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Pay the ticket and move on.

Werd, and no need to ride illegal. Why pollute the air, pay $500 in parts and risk a ticket for 10hp?

$50 per HP? A lot of people will pay that.

Right around CARB (smog) legal supercharger $/hp numbers...

You can't. If it's a modified emissions citation, the proper fix is to have the state BAR referee inspect and sign off on it. Going to court will have the judge order this action.

The officer is just making a judgment of possible modified emissions violation based on what he saw. You can fight it by questioning his accuracy or that he violated your privacy, but when it comes to matters of emissions as long as he has probable cause the judge will side with him.

-alex